Christian

CHRISTIAN

This was a lovely lovely day!  We had a full day planned with Christian and the people at the hogar so we got up early, had our breakfast with Dona Blanca and hit the hogar.  The plan was to go xmas tree + deco shopping, put it up in the hogar and have a goodbye dance class with all 79 kids.  Luckily we had no time for the dance class - what a relief... I think it would've been complete and utter CHAOS!!!!  As soon as we got to the hogar, the director sat us down and asked us for a favour:  whether we can get a collection of gifts for the 30 employees too that work there.  At the end of the day, they work so so hard and a xmas hamper to say thank u would go a long way and help keep their motivation up so off we went to get all the stuff they wanted.

Before I go any further, i want to say a HUMUNGOUS thank you to the Belgian crew for all your efforts: the clothes and goodies that you guys sent and the money you helped raise during the cake sale.  It has truly made an impact here and has allowed us to provide a little happiness to alot of people over here - so thank you very very much!

Continued...

I have talked alot about Christian to Dona Blanca and have raised her curiosity about him so she wanted to meet him before i left - She said that she would like to go visit him every now and then on my behalf.  Els brought a lot of clothes for Christian and so it was a good opportunity for him to come to the house and meet Dona Blanca as well as try all the clothes on.  About 90% of the clothes fit him perfectly so he now has a brand new wardrobe - wicked!! 

We then went xmas tree shopping - Christian was DA MAN!  He was in charge!  He was responsible for it all: from choosing the tree to picking out the decos to pushing the trolley etc.  It was nice to see him happy and excited!  Of course, his excitement was further heightened when we had lunch at mcdees (yukh but fine, i'll put up with a bit of crap in my arteries for him! If i die early from a heart attack, it'll be from the weekly mcdees we had and i'll be sure to come back and haunt him!!!).

When we got back to the hogar, we wanted to distribute some of the supplies and clothes that Els had brought over from Belgium.  I let her do this one on her own as I'm scared of hungry kids with lice:-) She was v brave - she stood in between them all(without a shower cap on her head even) who were about ready to tear her down to get into the bags!:-) They were ALL over her - seriously, it was almost like she was getting swallowed by the Guatemalan sinkhole!  A couple of times there were some looks of panic from her end - as if to say "save me" - but she managed to  make it through to the other side!:-)

We then put the xmas tree up with a few of the kids, decorated it - the kids were so so excited!  At first,  the tree was only decorated around the bottom as that's how far they could reach:-) so we had some rearranging to do but it turned out ok in the end!  We then all sat down for the "turning on the lights" ceremony.  It wasn't quite as grand as the event at fountain square but close enough!:-) The kids faces were like "woooooooow, so beautiful".  They've never had a xmas tree in the 7 years the hogar has been open so this was quite the treat for them.  Several of the young girls came upto us and said "you are so kind to give this to us" - it was so sincere and heartfelt.  Such a small thing but it seemed to mean so much.

Then the teachers gave a little speech about my time there - she started off by asking how many kids know me and I was actually quite surprised by how many did!  But i think that's cos they know me as "Christian's friend".  They then gave us a certificate just to say thank you - it was like a standing ovation kind of thing - really sweet!  (Side note for Jessica: don't be jealous ok??!!!!):-)

The kids were so so clingy and huggy and touchy feely like never before.  I just didn't want to let them go - there were 4 new kids versus the week before and I knew exactly who they were!  I must know quite a lot of the people there without realising it.  There was a 12 year old who had been taken away from her parents cos her father is an alcoholic and beats her up really badly.  She had such a sad ora about her:-( Even though the younger kids are cuter,  I realise that I have more of a weakness for the older kids than the younger ones...The younger ones simply are too young to understand what's going on - for the most part, u see them running around the hogar with all the other kids, playing, laughing, without a care in the world.  That's right - they are kids, they shouldnt have a care in the world.  From my perspective, i imagine that they think it's a sleepover at their friends nite, except that it's every nite where they have tons of sisters and brothers to play with.  But the older ones understand very well what's going on - they have a completely different attitude about them.  I don't see them running around playing "ring a ring a roses"or laughing with the other kids.  They are loners, way more timid, shuffling by the sides of the walls on their own, afraid to approach, very quiet, unhappy.   You can see the pain in their eyes, the sadness, they say that they just want "to be with their family one day" - yet a lot of them are orphans and will never ever have that opportunity.  Be it poor health, accidents - i don't know why alot of these kids are parentless but they will never ever have that and I find that so sad...:-( Again, put things in perspective for me as to just how much we have and how lucky we are...

Saying goodbye to Christian was hard too...Normally, he's kind of standoffish - your typical 13 year old teenager, not wanting to show his feelings.  The teachers tell me that he talks about me a lot, telling them how much he loves me and how he's gonna miss me yet he would never say that to me.  He did actually make me a little present - a little bracelet!  That must be his way of expressing himself...When we hugged goodbye, I so didn't want to let him go - we were both crying...:-( it was just awful:-(  I want to make sure that I keep in touch and I know I will but it's not about that.  I want to help him yet realistically how possible is that gonna be from so far away?  These kids don't necessarily need money as much as they need relief once in a while, love and care - and those are things I simply can't provide from far away.  We'll see how it goes - yo no se manana right?  Time will tell how things pan out.

Here's my goodbye:-(

ok, back to my story.